Ijen Trail Candidate Race: Maulana and Wismoyono victorious
Trail running in Indonesia has taken off seriously this year, as illustrated with four entries in the Asia Trail Master series, and another fifth event is looking to become part of the series next year. Ijen Trail Running was organised for the first time in Bondowoso, East Java, last weekend and of course had Ijen volcano as its core feature.
On offer in this Candidate Race were 70km, 30km and 10km distances. The long distance was won by Bandung Explorer duo Alan Maulana and Arief Wismoyono, with Hadi Firmansyah completing the podium. Wismoyono just won the Mount Rinjani Ultra two weeks ago and is said to be focussing on Bromo Tengger Semeru in November as well. If he keeps up this level of form, he could be a favourite to win the first Asia Trail Master championship.
The 30km race was won by Moh Soni Prasetyo in the men's, and Sara Manurong in the women's. With runners from the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom also on the 30k podium, Ijen Trail running did attract a number of international athletes already.